Letters to the Editor
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I have a friend in Canada who has a Smart Car
And someone in her car club was in a fairly nasty accident-- the Smart got a little pounded but he was perfectly fine.
When we were in Montreal I saw tons of Smarts-- I heard a rumor they have snow and ice up there sometimes. I suspect the smart will be popular in cities and expand from there.
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I want diesel
The thing I want in this car, or any other so-called "enviro" car, is a diesel engine. We don't see those in the US much, because we have strict emissions standards (which is good). But rather than do the required engineering to meet the emissions standards, most manufacturers simply elect not to sell their diesel variety cars in the US.
It's a real shame, because diesel engines are so much better than the Otto cycle engines we all drive around. They tend to be more efficient because they can sustain higher compression ratios. They also tend to last longer.
The best incentive for companies to do the right thing is to reward them when they get it right. I have heard rumors that VW will be reintroducing diesel cars to the US market. If so, I fully intend to reward the effort they have put into rising to the challenge of our emissions regulations with a purchase.
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The statement that the Smart Car would do just fine being T-boned
is absurd. The car that hit me in the driver's door would have ended up in the passenger seat of the Smart car, the driver completely crushed and instantly killed. Hey, until it's happened to you, it's easy to be smug! Don't say I didn't warn you!
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Smarts are small, but they are big
I have been driving a Smart for several years.
Yes, it DID SEEM expensive, at the beginning.
BUT
- it's still in very good considition with a minimum of service,
- it uses so much LESS fuel on the long run, that at the end of the year you see the difference
- you can park it in such small slots that I haven't had a fine for wrong parking since I had it
- it is not a car for a six-lane highway, but it's a perfect solution for congested cities.
You get real value for your money.
And, to answer someone's question, I have been in the Swiss mountains with it in all Summer and Winter weathers, with winter tires, it goes almost anywhere.
It's a real plus for the environement, and compares with no other car, really.
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Mercedes took their time bringing this to USA
Mercedes has been dragging it's feet for years about bringing the Smart Car to the US. There was a strong grey market distributor for Smart Car for several years that got into a legal dispute with Mercedes once Mercedes decided to enter the market officially.
The Smart Car is nice but would have been nicer if Mercedes brought it to US when it was new. The line is already 10 years old now.
Along the same lines it would be nice if Mercedes brought their A-class car to the US. Mercedes seems to be embarrassed about its low-end cars which exist in Europe but not in the US. I think Mercedes could get a much broader base in the US if it stopped worrying about cheapening its luxury line and brought its entire line to the US.
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All hail the Messerschmidt KR201 Scooter car
And the FSR-Karo, the Subaru 360, the NSU Prinz-III, the Maico 500, the Honda 606, the Mazda R360, the BMW Isetta, the Trabant, the Fiat 500, the Gogglemobile, the Zundapp Janus, the Heinkel Kabine, the BMW 600, the Diahatsu Hijet. See people have been making microcars for a long long long time. And when they're done they go into museums, if any of them are still left.
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1970s deprivation at a 21st century price
It brings to mind the tiny Fiats that I saw in Italy and Spain in the 1970s. People drove those tiny, cheap and lightweight cars because that was all the car and all the gasoline that they could afford.
I think this car has an application for people who only drive a few thousand miles a year. America has such bad urban design that one cannot walk to the market. This is the perfect grocery getter.
And if it's snowing, one can wait until another day to get fresh milk.
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Smart Cars are way over due
These would work, even if we do have BIG SUVs. There would probably have to a condition law at each state about not getting on express ways. But this would be wonderful for easy around town comutes.
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D Robert : I see
Well I didn't expect that you'd somehow become any less rude and arrogant but in any case your points are still utter nonsense.
So these relatively small differences you cite make your point, in your mind? You demand "think of the distance between Halifax NS and Vancouver!" as one of the "unimaginable" distances. Since we're now recduced to citing actual distances, let's take a look:
Halifax to Vancouver is 6147 KM.
Well, Bangor, Maine to Seattle is 5,268 KM.
So the longest possible distance in Canada is a little longer. This make it unimaginable to us? It's absurd.
It's like saying "I walk ten blocks to work every day, which is fine. My friend however walks this unimaginable distance: eleven blocks!."
Your point was absurd the first time you made it and it still is. The nasty arrogance only induced me to actually respond rather than just shake my head.
By the way I used to drive SF to LA weekly. Lots of people do.
On the overarching point, I've lived all over the world and I think Americans are about as foolish or clever as the rest. Each tend to have their own brand of foolishness. This kind of arrogance about things of which you know little is a classic example of what I found particularly foolish about several other cultures.
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Love em, but problems
Or, problem...
The price.
Base on the PURE fortwo is around 12K, base on the PASSION fortwo is 14K. I'm not sure how many options you'll drop in there, but for this you get a 3 cylinder engine and no room for anything.
Lets see what 12-14K will get you otherwise in car markets:
For around 12-13K I can get an Hyundai Accent, 4 cylinder engine, AC, CD stereo, Power windows/locks and remote keyless entry.
For around 15K you can get a Honda Fit with all of the above, plus extras like fold flat rear seats. A friend has a fit and with the back seats folded flat fits her St Bernard and Rottie (both full grown) while driving around.
For the Buy USA crowd, you can get a Dodge Calibur with similar features, a ton more room, fold flat back seats, and aux in jack with your standard cd players for around 16K.
I could go on, but these three prime examples show why Smart won't ever be anything more then a niche vehicle. If they could price it around 8-10K, they would be fantastic, but for the same price, I can get much more car in some of the awesome sub-compacts that have come out recently. For a little more, I can get a vehicle big enough to use for camping trips and everything else.
The only folks who are going to buy em are people who can afford two cars, one for fun and one to commute to work with. For that, awesome, but Mercedes went and priced them out of the general public's usefulness. They're fantastic vehicles, but why would I spend that much on so little?
*all comparisons were priced at bottom trim levels with basic comfort packages (ac/cd player/etc) added in, as well as keeping them manual transmissions.